New Immigration Procedures 25 September, 2007

The Ministry of Justice has decided that all foreigners (including permanent residents) entering Japan must be fingerprinted and photographed. The Ministry’s excuse for this is a long list of terrorist acts, none of which happened in Japan.

Personally, I don’t like the idea of being treated as a criminal just because I am foreign. If they want to implement draconian measures like this, they should apply to everyone entering Japan, not just foreigners. If they could get the Japanese public to agree to this kind of treatment, then I wouldn’t be as upset about it.

Yes, I agree that Japan is just following suit with the U.S. Unfortunately, the Japanese system is going to be even more strict since even Permanent Residents will have to be photographed and fingerprinted here. I believe that is not the case in the U.S.